A Town Without Heroes
by jtav
Summary: A missing Future Industries employee leads Asami and Mako to a town Asami would rather forget-and a vicious pirate. They tell themselves they're too battered to be heroes, but sometimes the storybook figures are real. Or, Asami gets a chance to be Zorro, Mako gets one last adventure, and both get a second chance at love. Masami with incidental mentions of canon pairings.
1. Chapter 1

Of course Wen would have to disappear here. The village of Ku Gao was identical to any of a thousand such places in the Earth Kingdom, barely more than a few dusty streets and a collection of houses and stores that had been on the brink of failure even before the bandits. Only once had anything of note happened there. They had chosen to refuse to pay the Earth Queen's taxes rather than starve, and the queen had sent Avatar Korra to get them back. Asami had fought beside her. They had stumbled away, shivering with adrenaline and desperate to believe they were heroes.

Asami was beginning to believe the universe really did hate her.

She made a slight adjustment to their course and surveyed the vast expanse of rock and dirt below. Piloting large craft was both more difficult and more dull than driving a race car or flying a biplane but it kept her mind sharp and calm. Kept her from remembering whispered rumors that she was insane, that maybe Future Industries would be better off if Cabbage Corp's hostile takeover succeeded.

Asami tightened her grip on the steering wheel. Rebuilding the United Republic's infrastructure to accommodate spirits wouldn't have been easy at the best of times, but the chaos in the Earth Kingdom meant higher prices for metals and refugees surging into the Republic. Which meant a very angry Raiko demanding she do twice the work with half the resources. Asami was an engineer, not a magician. The vulture-sharks had scented blood and Asami had found herself in danger of losing Future Industries a second time. It was times like this she almost missed the days of Team Avatar. At least she'd been wanted.

So perhaps it was natural she'd volunteer to seek out Wen. He'd been on his way to Omashu in search of cheaper platinum when he'd vanished. Kuvira's forces were on the other side of the continent, but Asami Sato didn't abandon one of her own. Maybe the rest of the company would remember that once she brought him home.

"You know this is crazy, right?" Mako said as he entered the bridge. "It's going to be like looking for a needle in a, um, really big place."

"Well, it's a good thing I brought a detective." Asami smiled despite herself. "And you're the one who wanted to spend your last two weeks of freedom helping me."

"I owe you for, well, everything. And anything's better than playing bodyguard to a spoiled, stuck-up prince. Why did Wu have to pick me?"

"Being the one to finally arrest Viper probably had something to do with it. It sounded very dashing in the papers." Only Asami had seen the gouges and slashes from bullets and whips of ice. Just like she had seen Korra's vacant stare. It was a calling, what they did for the world, but it would never be glamorous. Even when they weren't the unwitting tools of tyrants.

Mako bowed his head. "I just—I wanted to do something with my life. Mom used to tell me stories about the Stone Warriors. I wanted to be one when I grew up."

Asami raised an eyebrow. "Blending into the Earth until evil struck and their swords glittered like the sun. My Mom read me those stories too." She smiled sadly. "And we had a good run."

"We did." His hands squeezed her shoulders. Asami relaxed slightly. Whatever else had passed between them, he was the last of those she loved. In a few weeks, they would have other responsibilities. But for now there was—

A bell clanged. Her navigator looked at her with pale, surprised eyes. "Air pirates, eight o'clock."

Asami bit back a curse. There were rumors of the scope of the lawlessness plaguing the remote corners of the Earth Kingdom. Entire states held in the grip of criminal syndicates and charismatic raiders building private armies. But she had thought a fast ship, minimal publicity, and her own training would be enough. Clearly, she had underestimated the pirates. She tapped another crewman on the shoulder. "Take the helm. Try to lose them."

Mako looked at her alarm. "What are you doing?"

"Preparingg for what happens if we can't." She took a deep breath and turned on the intercom. "Code Orange. I repeat: Code Orange. Nonessential crew report below deck. Security staff, I would appreciate you coming with me. We might have a fight on our hands."

Mako followed her as she sprinted towards the deck. "You don't have to, you know."

He almost smiled. "But I want to."

Asami breathed a sigh of relief and slid her glove over her hand. At least she still had something.

The warmth in her chest died as she saw what they faced. She had been expecting one or two planes Mako could shoot down with lightning bolts. A handful of boarders she and her men could dispatch. But behind and to the right of them and gaining quickly was another airship that seemed to fill the sky behind her. The body was roughly the same size and shape as the one that had crashed in the Si Wong Desert so long ago, but whoever owned it now had obviously ripped the guts out. The dark vertical bands on the hull and equally dark cover made it seem like a thing from a nightmare. And then the bottom shifted and planes came out, flying forward as if launching from a trapeze. Airships carrying planes. A hanger inside an airship.

She had seen such a thing only once before. A year ago one of her engineers had come to her with an idea for such an aircraft carrier. Asami had been intrigued, but the fuel costs and the lack of interest from the Fire Nation meant the idea had never gone beyond the blueprint stage. The engineer had left soon after, and Asami had turned her focus to more immediate projects, certain the design was six or seven years away from being practical. Another thing she had been wrong about.

Asami steeled herself. Three planes were coming straight for her. "Firebenders, on my mark." She waited until the nearest plane was in range and dropped her hands. Two of the Future Industries firebenders sent jets of flame at the wing. The pilot tried to dodge, but he was no match for the agility of fire. Mako pointed his two fingers and lightning arced toward the propeller. The craft exploded into a ball of flame and metal.

Before Asami could order another strike, the firebenders fell to the ground. Their legs and arms were trapped by bolas. Asami turned. Six pirates stood on the deck, men and women in olive and brown military uniforms. At the center was a tall woman with piercing green eyes in yellow and green, epaulettes glittering in the afternoon sun. She carried crescent moon knives in each hand. Well-crafted steel, the kind Asami would buy for herself. Her cheek bones were high and prominent. Despite her uniform, she carried herself with a relaxed grace that Asami had never seen in a soldier. The woman's smile was sharper than any blade. "Impressive. But I'm sure you'd prefer to avoid a further mess." Her vowels were rounded and smooth. If it hadn't been for their surroundings, Asami might have mistaken her for a forgotten boarding school classmate. "I am Tzu-Chen, and I am in charge here. Let us have a look. We'll send you on your way after you've paid the toll."

"I don't negotiate with criminals anymore." Asami glanced around. Six pirates, but seven of her men were still standing. Including Mako. She liked those odds.

Apparently so did the pirate. Her smile widened and the battle was on. A burly man sent an earthbending disc Asami's way. Asami ducked and somersaulted toward him. She thrust her palms upward as she came out of the tuck, striking him in the sternum. He staggered backwards but didn't fall. Asami struck again, her right hand wreathed in electricity. He swore and fell back. Another pirate fell to Mako's lightning. Two down, four to go.

One of Asami's men lunged at Tzu-Chen with a combat knife. She leapt in the air and twisted, and the blade found nothing but air. She disarmed him with the front end of her right hand blade. She landed with a fluid movement and jabbed the left knife into his neck. Before Asami could even quite process what was happening, Tzu-Chen spun and cleaved his head from his body. Blood spurted everywhere, and for a moment, Asami's mind just…stopped. She had seen death before, but it had been from great distances or from the tinted glass of a mecha tank cockpit. This was raw, primal. She had known this man for years, and his head was on the floor.

"Asami!" Mako's shouts rang out against the din of battle.

Asami felt rather than saw the attacker approaching her. Her mind was reeling, but she had trained for hours a day for over fifteen years so that what came next was instinct rather than conscious thought. She twisted and yanked her assailant's arm, wrenching it until there was a sickening _crunch_. She followed with strikes to heart and throat. Block the chi. Neutralize the opponent. Kill if she must. The assailant crumbled and Asami didn't bother checking to see if she was breathing before moving on to the next. Her vision was tinted red.

All around her, Mako and her men fought for their lives. Crumpled bodies littered the deck, some breathing, most not. She saw Mako and Tzu-Chen trading blows. Tzu-Chen was a deadly beauty, her knives a perfect extension of her hands as they whirled and flashed. Mako was equally beautiful and equally deadly with his fire. Blades and flame conspired to keep either from getting too close and the battle might have gone on indefinitely if Asami had allowed them to fight fair. But she was a non-bender in a world where people controlled the elements, and so she didn't believe in fair fights. She kicked Tzu-Chen in the calf. Tzu-Chen grunted in pain as she felt to one knee. Mako was on her.

Tsu-chen dodged a blast of flame that made scorch marks in the wood and kicked Mako in the stomach with her good leg. Mako doubled over and grunted in pain. Asami threw another female pirate to the ground as Tsu-chen staggered away from Mako and readied her knives. Asami eyes narrowed. Neutralize her weapons. Protect Mako. Finish this. But Tsu-chen looked from Asami to Mako and smiled, her mouth as red as Asami's vision.

"Perfect little pair. Let's give the lovers something to think about." Her voice was choked with blood. "Catch!" She threw one of the knives straight for Mako's head. Asami's eyes widened. No. No. Not after Korra. Not with the blood pooling around her feet. She wouldn't lose anyone else. She jumped in front of the blade and thrust her arm out wildly to knock it off course. Metal screeched as it collided with her glove. Hot pain filled Asami's hand and she could see nothing else. Think of nothing else. She could only scream. Metal bit into her flesh.

"Asami," Mako said again. His arms were around her.

"Hurts," was all she could say.

"It's all right." His voice was as gentle as she had ever heard it. "We drove them off. Let's get you out of here."

She was dimly aware of being led back to her cabin and of Mako ordering a waterbender to follow them. Her hand still felt like it was on fire. She looked down. Her glove was a ruined scrap of metal with wires poking in all directions. One millimeter's difference in the blade's trajectory and she would've been dead. _Lucky,_ whispered some still functioning part of her mind. _You were very lucky._ But then she remembered blood spewing from a neck without a head and didn't feel lucky at all.

The waterbender dipped her hand in a waiting basin. The edge of the pain dulled and Asami could breathe again. "Well, your hand should be fine in a day or two and that's a mercy."

Mako knelt beside her. His face was bruised, but it was his eyes that made her feel like the knives were scraping at her insides. He looked at her like he had looked at Korra after she had escaped Tarrlok. Grieving and utterly helpless. "You saved me." There was the barest hint of a catch in his voice. "You could have died."

"Better than you definitely dying." Her own voice was a croak. "How many did we lose?"

"Don't worry about it right now. The first officer will take care of everything."

"How. Many?"

Mako hung his head. "I didn't count. Three, maybe four."

Asami closed her eyes. Since she had returned to Republic City and taken up her role as CEO in earnest, she had done all she could for the rank-and-file, even if management and fellow board members sometimes hated her for it. The assembly line workers, the drivers, the security staff. They were the muscle and bone that kept Future Industries running. She gave them sympathy, a living wage, safe working conditions, and trust. They, in turn, gave the best of themselves to the company. And today, some of that security staff had given their lives. Because of her.

Asami winced as the waterbender finished his work and bandaged her hand. "I should talk to the crew and staff. They'll be terrified, looking for reassurance."

Mako touched her shoulder. "You need to rest. You're running off endorphins, and it's not going to last."

"Just so long as it lasts a few more minutes." She flexed her fingers through the bandage. "My job isn't over yet."

But she felt as if she were standing outside her body as she surveyed the minor damage to the ship and assured everyone else that they had done their utmost and that she couldn't ask for more. They were, understandably pale and spoke little. She hoped her presence brought strength, if not comfort. A boy who couldn't have been more than sixteen and who looked as if he had just started shaving approached her as she was making course corrections.

He cleared his throat. "Ms. Sato?"

"Yes?" She peered more closely at him. His eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot and his breath smelled of vomit.

"Does it…does getting your head cut off hurt very much? Rui, he was my brother and I want to know if he suffered. Nobody will let me see him."

Asami smiled sadly at him and kept her voice warm. "No, I don't think he suffered." And it was probably true. Decapitation was supposed to be quick and clean. Not like being burned alive. She didn't have to lie like the officers had lied to her. She stepped closer, ignoring the smell, and put her good hand on his shoulder. "We'll hold a service and do better for him once we get home."

"Better." His voice was hollow. "That Tsu-chen. She just… why do people do things like this? All we wanted to do was bring our guy home."

"I don't know." She has seen men who wanted to eliminate bending or destroy the world, but she was no closer to understanding greed and cruelty than she had been when she was six years old.

"You'll get the bitch, won't you?" He straightened a little. "She's not going to get away with this, is she?"

"No, she isn't. I'll talk to the police as soon as we get to Ku Gao. We're close enough that this is their responsibility. We'll give Rui justice and bring Wen home."

That seemed to satisfy him, and he stumbled off towards more grief.

Asami made it back to her cabin before she started throwing up. Her mind collapsed in on itself as the façade of composure broke. All she could see was the knife severing Rui's head from his body and that same knife speeding towards Mako's head. She had thought Korra had inoculated her against fear and trauma. That facing off against the embodiment of chaos meant she would regard dealing with an overdressed bandit as almost routine. But it was the bandit who had almost taken the last of her loved ones. She looked at her bandaged hand. Tsu-chen had even managed to destroy her glove.

Her eyes were wet with tears, but she didn't feel sad. Just empty and frightened. Her body shook. The coldness, fatigue and red haze took their turn swallowing her. Every noise seemed unnaturally loud, a harbinger of a new attack. She dutifully put on her and nightclothes and lay in bed until the bell sounded for midnight. Asami gave up and turned on the lamp. If she were going to go crazy, she would do something useful. While she lost her mind She would go to the police tomorrow. With luck, they would be able to do something about Tsu-chen and tell her where Wen was. But she was never going to depend on the goodness of the people in charge ever again. She tried to picture the village, where shady characters might spend their time, anyone besides the biker gang who had stood out. She had to be prepared to find her people on her own.

Her hand throbbed. _And just how do you plan to do that?_

"Any way I can. My people suffered. That makes it my responsibility." For all her father's fanatical devotion to bigotry and false equality, he had raised her in a world of hierarchy and obligation. They were wealthy and brilliant and that wealth and brilliance were to be used in the service of others. And no one who depended on them would ever be left behind. If she abandoned that creed, she might as well hand over the company already.

Her door creaked open. Asami was half out of her chair and into a fighting stance before she realized it was Mako. He didn't look like he had slept either, and the soft shadows of the lamp did nothing to disguise his bruises. "You too?"

"If you're throwing up everywhere, then yeah. Me too." She pulled sweat-plastered hair away from her face. "I thought I would be used to it by now."

"I don't think you ever get used to it. I mean I was sick too, and I'm Arson." He rubbed the back of his neck and just for a moment he was her Mako again. Not the dashing pro-bender, but the boy who had lost his parents too, the one who had let her curl against him and made her feel safe and warm, who said that he would never give up on her. "Anything I can do?"

And maybe just now she wanted to be something other than the leader who had to have all the answers. He had broken her heart twice, but she could still trust him a little. And they were the last ones left, the only members of Team Avatar not living their own lives or trapped in their private torment yet. "Sit with me."

He did, taking the chair closest to her. He carried the now-familiar odor of sickness, and she realized hereally was taking this as badly as she was. "I should have done better," she whispered. "About all of this. We stopped the Equalists. I should be able to handle one pirate band."

"You did handle it. They retreated. And considering the tech they had, I don't think this was Tsu-chen's first raid. We had Korra before. And nothing seemed quite as bad. Didn't hurt as much as it should."

Asami nodded. Korra had made all the difference. Asami had grown to love her for herself in time, but before that she had been the Avatar: the figure out of legend tasked to bring peace and balance to the world. She had given Asami purpose when her life had been falling apart. Korra had made them both believe they could be something more than a beleaguered heiress or a street rat. For as long as Team Avatar had existed, they had been heroes. And Korra, through her courage and her very nature had kept the death from quite touching them.

"I wish we had Korra now." They should have. Had her But not just for what she could do. Korra should never have been ravaged by that poison. She should never have had that vacant stare. Never felt like she had to go away. But she been nearly destroyed by another monster with no more right to victory than Tsu-chen. "But we don't. And so people like Tsu-chen get to _murder_ my staff. And, like you said, it's not her first raid. I'm going to find a way to stop her. Start with the police."

"And when they don't help?"

"Fight anyway." Her hand throbbed yet again, mocking her. "You must think I'm being a total idiot. But the world…it shouldn't be like this. The Earth Kingdom is only in chaos because of the Red Lotus. Maybe I wouldn't have cared before, but..."

"Korra made you care," he finished for her.

"Yes." She forced a smile for him. "You must think I'm crazy."

"No." He stood and came to her. The lamp was reflected in his amber eyes, bestowing a hint of life on what had been dead only moments before. He knelt before her, and his expression was so dreadfully earnest that a lump formed in Asami's throat. "I think you're pretty amazing. And I'm here. And I'll do whatever you need."

Jets of flame seemed to work their way between them and neither of them looked away. There had been a time Asami would have begged for him to have that kind of faith in her. She had given him her heart with an almost reckless enthusiasm. She'd been half convinced she was the princess of an old tale and he was the poor but brave hero. All they needed to do was defeat the villain to live happily ever after.

But the stories were only stories. He had loved Korra, not her. And every villain defeated brought ten more in their place. She had fallen for Korra in her turn, but that love had had no power to rouse Korra from her stupor. There were no heroes; there was only them. Two people who had lost too much and kept fighting anyway.

He kept looking at her. "Whatever you need. We'll find Wen and do something about those pirates." He took her hands and they were large and calloused and slightly scarred, hints of a life on the street that he would never talk about. "We'll go to Ku Gao and see what we can do. Together."

See what she could do in Ku Gao. She had failed their once and oppressed the people she should have defended. Yes, she would see what she could do in Ku Gao. And what she had done to it. But at least she would not be alone.

* * *

It was almost dawn when Mako returned to his room. He was still bruised from the fighting. When he was younger with no sense, he had thought he was tough and sharp, that watching his parents die had conferred some special strength and street smarts. But violence was more like being a pro-bender. You could survive knocks to the head that would kill a lesser man, but tripping and falling would give you the concussion that ended your career. He had almost been killed by someone who would have been right at home with the Triple Threats. Would have died. If not for Asami.

She had been amazing. Maybe there was something perverse in seeing beauty in the way she fought, in the efficiency of her strikes, but that life on the street made him take beauty where he could find it. He had been dazzled by the fine clothing she wore and the gift sshe offered. Most incredibly of all, she haven't seen him as a street rat who would always bear the stink of the triads. She had felt safe with him. No one had ever felt safe with him before except Bolin. So it had been easy to forget how strong she was until body after body had fallen around him and he had had no choice to remember. And she had kept on doing her job, never letting her mask slip until they were alone together. On the ugliest day of his life since Korra had been poisoned, Asami had still managed to be… fantastic. He had been stupid to think of her as some mythical princess. Stupid not to recognize what he had and to choose it. He couldn't have loved the ideal in his head, but he thought he could have loved the bruised and battered woman with the bandaged hand whose eyes blazed with so much conviction.

But he had squandered that. Idiot that he had been. Now, all he could do was try to hold her hand as she forged ever onward into the darkness and tried to honor the memory of the woman they had both loved. And maybe, just once before he was at the mercy of Prince Wu, Mako could be a hero again.


	2. Chapter 2

The fifth time Asami plucked at her bandage, Mako couldn't ignore it. "Stop that," he whispered. "We don't want to draw attention to anything that might make us a target." Bandages, fine clothes, strangers in a town small enough that it was obvious that they were strangers. They might as well have been wearing signs that said "Please mug."

And Ku Gao looked like the kind of place that saw its share of muggings. The streets were narrow and twisty. Cobblestone gave way to dirt without warning or apparent pattern. Half the storefronts they passed were boarded up, and paint on the signs advertising everything from books to flowers was chipped. Children, lean and hard-eyed, watched them with interest; but the few adults he saw had vacant, slightly unfocused, stares. The faint scent of opium smoke clung to everything. He took a breath. This poverty was just as sharp as anything he had seen on Republic City's streets, but somehow worse. There was life in the chaos of the Dragon Flats Borough, but here there was only a slow strangulation. No life, no opportunity, no hope.

"Sorry." Asami flexed her fingers. "It feels so weird not to have the glove. I feel naked without it."

Mako flushed slightly. Ever since last night, his thoughts had been full of her. The way she moved, the scent of jasmine on her skin, the way her good hand felt when it brushed against his. He felt as if he had woken from a long sleep. So suddenly, sharply aware of her that even the word _naked_ conjured memories that it was better to forget. "You were a great fighter before and you still are."

"At least I've got my range of motion back. Now all I have to worry about is some scarring. And the itching." She stopped in front of a tavern. Or at least it had been a tavern. Like everything else here, the windows were dark. "I remember this place. Practically bursting at the seams the last time I was here. The town was always poor, but now it's like it's rotting from within."

"I've heard about places like this. Now that everybody's moving to rail travel, the towns that don't have a station are dying." He wondered if that was why they had seen so few people their own age. All the people who could were heading to Ba Sing Se or Zaofu in search of opportunity. Most of them would end up like his family—if they were lucky.

Asami traced the grimy stone with her fingers. "They need investment, economic activity. Money." Her voice was soft. "I wonder how much difference that chest of gold would have made."

Mako put his hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. The Earth Queen tricked you."

"I know," Asami said, but the hunch of her shoulders belied her words. "I just wish I could help a few more people that I wasn't lucky enough to hit with my moped. These people deserve—"

"Hands where I can see them!" The voice behind him shook.

Mako turned and blinked. At first he thought he was looking at Bolin. A younger, pimply-faced version of Bolin. He was tall and well-built, but his clothes were patched and threadbare. What really got Mako's attention was the pair of hook swords he held in his hands. He had never seen them outside of children's books describing the Hundred Year War, but these were sharp and vicious-looking. Old, but obviously well cared for. "Give me your money. Now."

"Kid doesn't know how to use those. He's holding them all wrong," Asami whispered. She took a step forward and addressed the boy. "Why don't you put those away and we'll have a nice chat?"

"I said give me your money!" The boy tried to growl menacingly, but the effect was spoiled by the crack in his voice.

Asami took another step forward, hands out and voice gentle and even as she approached the frozen boy. "You don't want to do this."

"You don't understand." He swallowed." I owe this guy money and he works for Tsu-chen. I know what happens to people who piss off the Queen of the Skies."

Asami and Mako looked at each other. Mako nodded to her and Asami fished a two thousand yuan note out of her pocket. "I'm betting this is a lot more than you were thinking you would get. It's yours if you tell me about Tsu-chen."

The boy gaped at her. "I—I said…"

Asami moved like water and disarmed the boy with quick, fluid motions. The swords clattered on the ground as the boy whimpered. "It's a good weapon, graceful." She sounded like she was in a meeting with her engineers. "Don't treat it like a meat cleaver. Now, maybe you should tell us about Tsu-chen?"

The boy couldn't stop staring at the swords. "You're not from around here, are you?" He tore his eyes from the ground long enough to make sure they were alone. "Tsu-chen runs this whole state. Opium, gambling, weapons. Nothing gets through here except what she wants to get through. And the piracy. Can't forget about that. People who owe her or her people money disappear. And sometimes people who don't owe her money."

"Where can we find her?" Mako asked.

The boy's eyes popped out of his head, and for a moment he could only stare. Then he laughed, terrified and disbelieving. "You don't want to find her. You're not safe, even if you're foreign. Maybe especially if you're foreign. Guy came through two weeks ago. Real nice clothes, just like you. Tsu-chen's men snatched him right off the street.

Mako raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't happen to remember this guy's name, would you?"

His face scrunched together and he eyed the yuan note with obvious hunger. "W—Wen."

The color drained from Asami's face and now it was her hands that were shaking. "Wen. Do you know where he is, where she took him?"

"I've told you everything I know. Please, just give me the money and let me go before someone figures out that I talked to you."

Asami tossed him the note, and they watched as the boy took it, picked up the swords and scurried away.

Asami collapsed against the nearest wall. "She took Wen. She took him." Shivers wracked her body." She took him," she whispered.

Mako watched her for a moment. He'd always responded to other people's emotional crises by trying to fix the immediate physical problem. He'd gotten better at comforting people, but his insides still twisted up. It was one thing to take her hand in the privacy of her cabin, but he wasn't quite sure what to do here when anyone could wander by. Did she want his arm around her? Would it help? Or did she want a plan? Theories on where Wen might be? He stood paralyzed, terrified of making things worse yet again.

But…but he wanted to hold her, he realized. He put his arm around her and then seemed to be the right thing to do because she stilled and relaxed. They stood like that for a long moment, and he could almost feel her strength and resolve growing. Her heartbeat was strong and regular." Thank you," she whispered. She left his embrace slowly and gently as if it were something she had a perfect right to. But when she does looked at him, her eyes were as hard and cold as the street urchins'.

"She's kidnapped and killed my men. I'm going to find her, I am going to get Wen, and I am going to _kill_ her." She pulled all the way away from him and began to pace. "Which means that I have to find her."

"And she runs this entire state. Five hundred kilometers of dirt and rock." Yep, definitely a needle in a really big place. "What worries me is that we didn't know he was taken until now. Big operation like this has to have access to a radio transmitter capable of reaching Republic City. You should have gotten a ransom demand by now."

"Which means he's not being held for ransom." She stopped. "They kid said other people had been taken. And not seen again. If Wen's gotten mixed up with loan sharks or drug dealers…"

Mako shook his head. "But why get mixed up with a syndicate all the way out here? Triple Threats and Red Monsoons can get you anything you want. And they don't usually kill the customer. Puts a wrench into the whole 'force them to pay you back' plan. Anything unusual about Wen? Vices, hobbies?"

"None that I ever heard about. He's been with the company since before I was born, but he wasn't an Equalist." Her voice turned wistful. "Married to the same man for thirty years, happily as far as I know. He was an engineer up until I took the company back over from Varrick and promoted him to management. Still wore the same ratty suit and drove the same Satomobile."

"Okay, I'm stumped. I'm going to pay a visit to the local police chief, see if I can get him to tell me anything. Though if Tsu-chen really is that powerful, he's probably on the take."

"I'll go with you. Provide backup." She smiled at him, and he could almost pass for real one. "And by backup I mean bribe money. I did pick up a few things from Varrick." Her fingers threaded into his and they set off down the street. Despite everything, Asami's hands were warm and soft, and it was Mako's turn to relax. The few people they passed on the way to the chief's house smiled and nodded at them. They might have been any pair of young lovers. Mako found himself wishing, again, that he hadn't been such an idiot when he had had her. If he ever had the chance to visit his brother while he was off saving the rest of the Earth Kingdom, Mako would ask him if Varrick could invent a time machine.

The police chief's home turned out to be a manor house, the largest Mako had seen in the village so far. But like everything else in this place, it seemed faded. A plump, middle-aged woman ushered them into a drawing room with a carpet that was just this side of threadbare. The chairs were in the same style as the ones in Asami's sitting room, but there were scratches and nicks in the wood. "My husband and I have so few guests. Where did you say you were from?"

"Republic City, ma'am," Mako said. "I'm with the RCPD, and I was hoping your husband could help me with a criminal investigation." Well, it was technically true. He was still a detective and they were investigating a criminal.

"And you couldn't wait and do this at the station?"

"I'm afraid it's time sensitive. Someone's life could be in danger."

"Someone's life is always in danger," said a deep rumbling voice. The man who spoke was about Lin's age, with a thick mane of silver hair and dark, heavy eyebrows. He wore green and yellow silks a little too impractical for Mako to quite believe that a police chief was wearing them voluntarily. "I am Chief Xian. Min, sweetheart, if you could bring our guests some tea."

"Of course." She smiled, but Mako caught a whisper on the wind as she left. "And to think we had servants when we married."

Mako's eyes narrowed. The officer taking bribes to support a standard of living he could no longer afford was an old story, but one that made the fire in his blood simmer. Xian being on the take and just gotten more plausible. "A Republic City citizen went missing and was last seen in this area. I have reason to believe he's the prisoner of Tsu-chen. Who also attempted to board us and killed several of my friend's security officers." He inclined his head to Asami.

Xian blanched. "That was you?" he croaked. "There's been rumors all over town. Nobody's ever managed to stop one of Tsu-chen's raids before. Got some of the younger people in a lather, thinking they can change things that can't be changed. Any of them ends up with a knife in their back, I'm blaming you."

"Tsu-chen started this," Asami said quietly. "I'm not leaving without my employee."

"I'm afraid you'll be disappointed." Xian's voice was cold and matter-of-fact. "Tsu-chen's operation depends on her airfleet. And the kind of people who can maintain that generally don't want to work for pirates. She kidnaps visiting foreigners every few months, usually engineers. No ransom ever asked for. And we've never recovered a single one of them. You want to know what I think? I think she works them half to death, kills them after a few months, and starts the whole process over again."

The tremor in Asami's fingers was almost imperceptible. "And you just let her do that? You don't look for these victims?"

"I didn't say that. I said we never found them. And I'm tired of seeing good men and women died because…" his voice broke slightly. "…because of some storybook notion that the good guys always win and the bad guys always lose. And because I—"

"Because you what?" Mako made his voice low and dangerous, the same one he used to interrogate Triple Threats. "Maybe you don't find them because you don't try hard enough. Maybe it's not worth your while. Maybe it's worth more to you to look the other way. Syndicate like this can't survive without greasing some palms."

Mako waited for the inevitable angry denial. But Xian went very still. "You think I'm on the take?" His laughter was bitter and a little deranged. "Tsu-chen might pay someone to disembowel me after she's seen the whole town die. She gives the young people a chance to get out of this one ostrich-horse town and does all her killing and stealing in a backwater state that the Earth Queen only cared about once we decided to stand up for ourselves. I guess you know how that turned out."

Xian didn't seem to notice Asami flinch as he continued, "I'm sure Tsu-chen bribes people in Ba Sing Se because that's where the real money in the opium trade is. I'm sure she's compromised a few Provisional Authority officers. But me? Anybody over forty in this town, for that matter? She just wants to see us burn."

Asami's eyes narrowed, and Mako could see the wheels turning in her head. "Tsu-chen looked like she was about forty."

"Very clever. Her full name is Tsu-chen Choi. The Chois were the richest family this side of Omashu. Ran a tin mine. Gave me my first job."

"So, what? You're turning a blind eye because you think you owe her?"

His voice turned distant. "Tsu-chen, she glittered in her silks and jewelry. We all used to joke that she must have been brought from the Spirit World because she certainly didn't get her looks from her parents. And she loved to give that money away. Even to a teenage boy working the mines as part of his first job." He laughed again, still bitter. "She said she loved me. Maybe it was even true."

It was suddenly very hot in the drawing room. Mako pulled out his collar and Asami's cheeks were red. "But now she hates you?"

"I was a stupid kid. Nobody had ever showered me with gifts before, and she was pretty, and it was flattering. I didn't really love her, but I liked her and I told myself that was enough. But then old Mr. Choi got to speculating and he lost everything. No more presents, and by then I'd met Min and well… You know how these things go."

Mako felt cold inside. Little flashes of memory banged against his mind. Touching a suit that looked like something a Fire Lord would wear and not believing when the maître d' said it was for him. Mr. Sato sponsoring his team like it was nothing. Looking at the marble stairs and gilt columns of the mansion and thinking that this might be his life and wondering what he had done right. But also Korra's kiss, hot and electric. Watching her move, watching her fight, watching her burn with a fire hotter than any he had ever created. "I know how these things go."

"Maybe I could have been gentler about it, but I was trying to do what was right for me at the time. Her whple family left in disgrace and nobody saw her here again until after the Earth Queen died. She already had her little syndicate, but she moved the bulk of her operation out here. Guess she blamed us for losing everything. Blamed me."

"You did abandon her." Asami's voice was ice.

"I was a dumb kid," Xian repeated. "You've probably never been poor in your life. It's easy to get caught up in that. And it's not like I made her take up raiding and drug smuggling and everything else. If I—"

The door opened and Xian's voice was swallowed up in the whoop and holler of children. Two small boys, all dirty faces and scabby knees charged into the room bearing long sticks. "Dad, Po cheated!"

"Did not! The Stone Warrior always beats the evil bandit. It's not my fault you lost."

The teenager who followed them was a younger version of Xian, handsome and dark-complexioned. His hair was tied back and his gold-rimmed glasses gave him a scholarly air. "No fighting, you two." He bowed hastily to Mako and Asami. "Sorry. I didn't realize we had company." He peered at them. "Wait, I know you. There was a picture of you in the paper when all that stuff with the spirits was going on. Your friends of the Avatar."

"The Avatar who stole our gold. Lovely. Now I know you two are trouble."

But the two younger boys' eyes were wide with excitement. "You knew the Avatar?"

Mako rubbed the back of his neck. All those years as a probender and he had never quite mastered the art of dealing with an awestruck kid. "Yeah. I, um, guess you can say that."

"Wow! Have you ever fought any bad guys?" Po waved his stick sword about wildly, nearly whacking Mako in the leg. "I want to fight bad guys when I grow up. Be a Stone Warrior. Or a cop like my dad. Or maybe the Avatar!"

"We already _have_ an Avatar."

The oldest boy shifted awkwardly. "May I see our guests out, Father?"

Xian grunted and the boy took that for assent because he took Asami by the arm and led them to the door. "I'm sorry about my Dad. Things were bad even before the Earth Queen died, and now it's even worse. We need outside help. Badly. Especially Future Industries help." He smiled slightly at the look on their faces. "After what happened last time, I don't think I'm going to forget what a Future Industries airship looks like. That gold could have fed a lot of people."

Asami looked at the ground. "I—we didn't know. I'm sorry."

"But don't you see? You could help. People join up with Tsu-chen because they don't have any other options. The fastest way to break a triad is to give someone a good factory job."

Mako frowned. there was something fierce in his voice, more than just an academic discussion of economics. "Who do you know that's in with the pirates?"

"I—what—how did you know?"

"Cop. It kind of goes with the territory."

The boy looked at his feet. "My boyfriend Bao. He's the inkeeper's son, but we're not exactly flush with visitors. He took out a loan from Rui Ta. I don't think he's a big guy for Tsu-chen, but he's still not somebody you want to get mixed up with. His brother Bei's been making noises about joining the pirates too. Because they don't think they can get a good job any other way."

Asami flinched. "I know. I can never repay what I owe this place, but I'd like to-wait, this Bao of yours, does he own a pair of hook swords?"

"His grandfather's." An expression of pure horror crossed his face. "What did he do?"

"Tried to mug us," Mako said dryly. " _Tried_ being the operative word."

He put his hand to his face. "I'm going to strangle him." He looked at Mako and Asami with pleading eyes. "Don't tell anyone. Especially not my dad. He already thinks I'm slumming it. Bao's a great guy. He's just…desperate."

Asami put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't let anyone, especially not your dad, tell you that someone is beneath you. You decide what someone is worth to you, no one else." There was an acid tinge to her voice. "I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name."

"Deng."

"Well, Deng. We are friends of the Avatar. And we will help as much as we can. After all, that's what Korra does best. Give people hope."

They took their leave and returned to the dusty, decrepit streets. How were they supposed to bring hope to this? Mako kept replaying the conversation with Xian in his head. There had been a beggar who lived in the tunnels beneath the city and to claim he was a sage. He said that a great cycle controlled everything, with events repeating again and again with only minor variations. Some were destined to be heroes. And others were doomed to be faithless lovers, leaving one person as soon as something better came along. He had stared at Mako pointedly when he said that.

When the whole mess with Korra and Asami had happened, he had tried to dress it up. Korra had kissed him. He was in love with her. He just hadn't realized it until Tarrlok had kidnapped her. But Xian was the distilled form of everything he had been. A jerk. A cheat. A lousy, good-for-nothing scoundrel. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "For the way I treated you before. Both times. I don't think I ever really apologized."

Asami stopped walking and looked at him in surprise. "Mako?"

He kept going. "I wasn't just using you for your money. I really liked you." He swallowed. _I still do._ But he didn't know how to say that.

Asami closed the distance between them and cupped his cheek. Her fingers were hot on his skin. "I know. You're nothing like him. You're a good man. Just a little thick." She laughed, and it was genuine. Her breath caressed his face, and for a moment Mako could almost believe he had a chance. He focused on her lips, still as dark and red as cherries. He remembered that they tasted like cherries, too. Maybe they could put the past behind them. Maybe he could take her hands and drop to his knees and swear that he would be better this time. He couldn't replace Korra, but he would try to make her happy. Maybe…

But Asami's hand fell to her side and her expression shifted to businesslike so quickly that Mako was left gasping for breath. "Since Xian won't help us, we're going to need other leads. I'm not going to let Wen die."

Oh. Right. The actual reason they were here. _Idiot. Still not thinking with your brain._ "You've got a plan?"

"This Rui Ta. We get him to talk. Maybe he can tell us where Wen is."

"It could work." Mako tried to transform his addled brain into something worthy of a detective. "But if he really is a small fish-eel, he may not know."

"Okay. You're the organized crime expert. How do we catch the big fish-eel? How did you catch Viper?"

"We interfered with Triple Threat operations. Got him pissed off. Drug buys, arson, extortion. You name it, we were there." He frowned. "Which almost got me killed." The scars on his chest and knee still ached in bad weather.

"I remember." She smiled sadly at him. "But I can't just sit by and do nothing. But I don't want innocent people to be hurt. If Tsu-chen finds out I'm after her, she might go after you. Or kill Wen. Or kill someone else."

"I'm with you regardless." But the civilians… they wouldn't be even a little safe. And they both knew it. They were probably lucky Tsu-chen wasn't hacking people up in search of bloody vengeance right now. "But as long as she knows you're hunting…" He snapped his fingers as an idea hit him. "What if she didn't know you were hunting? The attack on the airship didn't seem like it was connected to Wen."

"So, what, we adopt secret identities?"

"Go undercover."

"Yes. I could say that I'm here looking for investment opportunities. You're with me because you're about to have access to the future Earth King." She looked at her bandaged hand. "I'm furious about Tsu-chen, of course, but I'm in no condition to take vengeance. And I am so very sick of losing people." The excitement of a new plan made Asami radiant. "You're brilliant."

"I try."

As they marched back to the airship to tell the crew that they would be staying indefinitely, Mako thought of this half-insane plan that was the only one they had. Korra would have been proud of both of them. One last adventure saving those who had no one else to save them. And they would come through this safely, rescue Wen, defeat Tsu-chen, and return as heroes.

It wasn't everything he wanted, but it would be enough.


End file.
